THE DETROIT! WISH NEWS -4 Friday, SeVeiiiiiri4, 1982 69 Adolph Eichmann 20 Years After His Execution By SIMON GRIVER World Zionist Press Service JERUSALEM — It is 20 years since Adolf Eichmann was executed and about double that period since the "Final Solution" that he or- ganized got into its lethal full swing. Few trials have ever at- tracted as much attention as Eichmann's. The Nuremburg trials, im- mediately after the Nazi de- feat in 1945, were compel- ling but then the guilt was not concentrated on one man, and a rather ordinary man at that. Moreover the Nazis at Nuremburg were tried more generally for war crimes, unlike Eichmann who in the Jewish state was accused by the Jewish people of genocide. Perhaps the only other man in the dock to ever pro- voke as much political con- troversy was Albert Dreyfus. But while it was Dreyfus' obvious innocence in the face of the anti- Semitic French establish- ment that stood out, it was Eichmann's glaring guilt, obsessive anti-Semitism and the extent of his crime that captured and chilled the imagination. If Dreyfus, the assimi- lated Jew who was made a scapegoat after the military defeat by Prus- sia in 1870, represented the inability of the Euro- pean establishment to accept their Jewish citi- zens, then Eichmann symbolized the ruthless means by which Europe was to root out its unde- sired Semites. Ironically, while Dreyfus, the loyal Frenchman, was ignorant of Jewish culture, Eichmann learned Yiddish and Hebrew so he could more efficiently set about the extermination process. Indeed Miron Sima, an artist who observed Eichmann's trial, was one of many who commented on the Nazi's Jewish looks. "Put a little hat on his head and he could be a member of a kibutz," he noted at the time. When Eichmann was dramatically kidnapped from his Argentine home and brought to Israel in May 1960, there was wide- spread condemnation of the act. An editorial in the New York Times characterized reactions: "No immoral or illegal act justifies another. The rule of law must protect the most depraved crimi- nals." As the man who made the final decision to seize Eichmann, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben- Gurion took the brunt of criticism. Ben Gurion's argument was that the major purpose of the trial would be educational, to remind a world that had already forgotten the scope and gravity of the crime committed by the Nazis. Editorials like that carried by the New York Times soon disappeared when the extent of Eichmann's acts was re- vealed. The gruesome stories told by witness after witness of Eichmann's cruelty cannot be reconstructed here. Even evidence from imprisoned fellow Nazis spoke of his vindictiveness. But the most macabre aspect of the trial was Eichmann's initial entry to the Jerusalem court in Beit Haam in April 1961: "There was a gasp. A gasp not in horror but be- cause this was such a com- mon, ordinary man." Eichmann's defense exploited this image of un- exceptionality by claiming that he was a cog in a bureaucratic wheel, who merely accepted orders. There was little substantial corroboration of this and much to suggest the oppo- site. Many, like Robert Bird who covered the trial for the New York Herald Tribune, suspected there was more to Eichmann than met the eye. "Eichmann seemed petty, certainly not of the stature of a Goerring, but there Was that look of fox-like slyness." Hannah Arendt, writing for the New Yorker, coined the famous phrase the "banality of evil." But Gi- deon Hausner, Israel's Attorney-General at the time, who conducted the prosecution, fiercely at- tacks Arendt's interpreta tion. Hausner agrees that Eichmann looked like a bank teller but feels Arendt was being a trendy intellec- tual who distorted the truth for the sake of finding an outlook that deviated from the accepted one and thus offered food for thought through its originality. The truth according to Hausner, was that Eichmann was an organiza- tional genius in his im- plementation of the "Final Solution." ADL Provides Radio Shows on Lebanon The three Jerusalem judges agreed with Hausner. The world, by and large, also agreed. The Soviet bloc were happy at the verdict (but condemned much of the "ludicrous" evidence which had suggested that their own citizens had helped in exterminating Jews). The Arab world filled their magazines with articles claiming that six million did not really die and that the Holocaust was a "big lie." The West followed the trial closely and learned not only of the horrors of the concentration camps but how its leaders knew and yet did nothing. However, 20 years of surveys in American and Europe show that today's youngsters have inadequate knowledge about the Holocaust. Events like last year's gathering of Holocaust sur- vivors have helped in pub- licizing an historical episide that people prefer to avoid. A major embarrassment to the government that seized Eichmann was that there were hundreds of newspaper articles in Israel assuming the German's guilt while thelnatter was still in court. The press dis- cussed how Eichmann should be disposed of long before the inevitable verdict was reached. Many, including Mar- tin Buber, opposed the execution of Eichmann. Some pointed out that the Jewish state had never executed anybody before (and has not since). Others were not so much liberal as vengeful, citing NEW YORK — Eight on-the-scene, 15-minute programs giving the human side of the Lebanon-Israel political and military situa- tion are available to radio stations as part of the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith "Dateline Is- rael" series. The programs, taped in Lebanon and Israel by Ar- nold Forster, ADL's general counsel, are aimed at help- ing audiences understand what lies behind the day- to-day news coming out of the Middle East. The programs are avail- able free from ADL's Tele- vision, Radio and Film De- partment, 823 United Na- tions Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017, or from the Michigan Regional Office, WO 2-9686. PLO Uses Civilian Shields 40 *104- - - A 20mm mobile anti-aircraft gun of the Palestine Liberation Organization is shown during the recent fighting in Lebanon parked in a Christian residential neighborhood. the obvious, that one death paled in compari- son to the pain suffered by six million. Reference was made to the legendary example of Zeus who punished Prom- etheus for stealing fire by tying him naked to a moun- tainside to be eaten alive by the vultures during the day and have his organs grow back at night so he could suffer the agony anew the following day. This might not be possible, but at least, some suggested, Eichmann could be made to stand trial in country after country where he had set up death camps. Eichmann was hanged at Ramle Prison at midnight May 30, 1962, following the decision of President Yit- zhak Ben-Zvi not to grant clemency. Eichmann's ashes were taken aboard an Israeli naval vessel and strewn out at sea. Like the people he killed he would have no grave to mark his burial, and appro- priately it was the Israeli military, defenders of the people he tried to liquidate, that bore his remains on their final journey. * * * 4.4 Adolf Eichmann and one of his crematoria at Bergen-Belsen. - Don't be left out .. 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